Research has shown that increased consumption of certain unsaturated fatty acids can enhance human health. In a Univ. of Wyoming trial, 36 cow-calf pairs were used to evaluate the effect of dietary supplemental fat on the fatty acid profile of milk and calf adipose tissue. At 3 days postpartum, cows were assigned three different diets to be individually fed grass hay plus a fat supplement: 1) Hay at 2.13% of body wt. (BW) plus a low-fat Control supplement at 0.57% of BW; 2) Hay at 2.32% of BW plus a high linoleic acid cracked safflower seed supplement at 0.4% of BW; and 3) Hay at 2.31% of BW plus a high oleic acid safflower seed supplement at 0.40% of BW. Diets were fed until 60 days postpartum. All three diets were formulated to be equivalent in crude protein and energy. Milk and calf fat tissue samples were collected for fatty acid analysis on day 60. Results showed that milk output of unsaturated fatty acids (oleic, linoleic, and their isomers) was significantly greater for high-linoleic and high-oleic acid supplemented cows than for Control cows. This was also observed in the adipose tissue of calves nursing the high-linoleic and high-oleic cows. The authors concluded that the deposition of physiologically important fatty acids in the tissue of the nursing calf can be altered through nutritional manipulation of the dam (Lake et al. 2004. Midwestern ASAS, Abstract 307).